Computational homogenization of non-stationary transport processes in masonry structures (Q448441)

The authors consider the fully coupled transient heat and moisture transport in a masonry structure. They investigate the nonlinear diffusion model proposed by Künzel. A strong material heterogeneity together with a significant dependence of the model parameters on the initial conditions as well as the gradients of heat and moisture fields vindicates the use of a hierarchical modelling strategy to solve a problem of this kind. In the paper, the approach is limited to the classical first-order homogenization in a spatial domain developed in the framework of a two-stay (meso-macro) multi-scale computational scheme (\(\mathrm{FE}^2\) problem). Several example problems are analysed in order to address the nonlinear transient coupled heat and moisture transport assumed on both scales, the influence of the way of prescribing the macroscopic loading conditions closely related to the macro-scale finite elements mesh and finally the solution strategy explicating the parallel computation. They are obtained from a set of experimental measurements providing the hygric and thermal properties of mortars and bricks, which are used in reconstructions of historical buildings in the Czech Republic including Charles Bridge.